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AHOM, or AHAM

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 433 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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AHOM, or AHAM , a tribe of Shan descent inhabiting the See also:Assam valley, and, See also:prior to the invasion of the Burmese at the commencement of the 19th See also:century, the dominant See also:race in that See also:country. The Ahoms, together with the See also:Shans of See also:Burma and Eastern See also:China and the Siamese, were members of the Tai race. The name is believed to be a corruption of the word " A-sam," the latter See also:part of which is identical with " Shan " (properly " Sham ") and with " See also:Siam." Under their See also:king Su-ka-pha they invaded Assam (q.v.) from the See also:East in the See also:year A.D. 1228, giving their name to the country. For a century and a See also:half from 1228 the successors of Su-ka-pha appear to have ruled undisturbed over a small territory in Lakkimpur and See also:Sibsagar districts. The See also:extension of their See also:power westward down the valley of the See also:Brahmaputra was very See also:gradual, and its success was by no means See also:uniform. In the See also:time of See also:Aurangzeb the Ahom See also:kings held sway over the entire Brahmaputra valley from See also:Sadiya to near See also:Goalpara, and from the skirts of the See also:southern hills to the Bhutia frontier on the See also:north. The See also:dynasty attained the height of its power under See also:Rudra Singh, who is said to have ascended the See also:throne in 1695. In the following century the power of the Ahoms began to decay, alike from See also:internal dissensions and the pressure of outside invaders. The Burmese were called in to the assistance of one of the contending factions in 181o. Having once obtained a foothold in the country, they established their power over the entire valley and ruled with merciless barbarity, until they were expelled by the See also:British in 1824–1825. In the See also:census of 1901 the See also:total Ahom See also:population in Assam was returned at 178,049.

The Ahoms retained the See also:

form of See also:government in Assam See also:peculiar to the Shan tribes, which may be briefly described as an organized See also:system of See also:personal service in lieu of See also:taxation. Their See also:religion was See also:pagan, being quite distinct from See also:Buddhism; but See also:AHRENS 433 in Assam they gradually became Hinduized, and their kings finally adopted See also:Hindu names and titles. They believed that there were in the beginning no heavenly bodies, See also:air or See also:earth, only See also:water everywhere, over which at first hovered a formless Supreme Being called Pha. He took corporeal shape as a huge crab that See also:lay floating, See also:face upwards, upon the See also:waters. In turn other animals took shape, the last being two See also:golden See also:spiders from whose excrement the earth gradually See also:rose above the surrounding ocean. Pha then formed a See also:female counterpart of himself, who laid four eggs, from which were hatched four sons. One of these was appointed to See also:rule the earth, but died and became a spirit. His son also died and became the See also:national See also:household deity of the Ahoms. The origin of mankind is connected with a See also:flood-See also:legend. The only survivors of the flood, and of the conflagration that followed it, were an old See also:man and a See also:pumpkin-See also:seed. From the latter there See also:grew a gigantic See also:gourd. This was split open by a thunderbolt, the old man sacrificing himself to See also:save the lives of those who were inside, and from it there issued the progenitors of the See also:present races of men, beasts, birds, fishes and See also:plants.

The kings claimed See also:

independent divine origin. The religion and See also:language have both died out being only preserved by a few priests of the old cult; but even among them the tradition of the See also:pronunciation of the language has been lost. The Ahoms had a considerable literature, much of which is still in existence. Their historic sense was very fully See also:developed, and many priests and nobles maintained lru-ran jis (i.e. " stores of instruction for the ignorant "), or See also:chronicles, which were carefully written up from time to time. A few of these have been translated, but as yet no See also:European See also:scholar possesses knowledge sufficient to enable him to study these valuable documents at first See also:hand. The Ahom language is the See also:oldest member of the Tai See also:branch of the Siamese-See also:Chinese linguistic See also:family of which we have any See also:record. It bears much the same relationship to Siamese and Shan that Latin does to See also:Italian. It is more nearly related to See also:modern Siamese than to modern Shan, but possesses many See also:groups of consonants which have become simplified in both. It is a language of the isolating class, in which every word is a monosyllable, and may be employed either as a noun or as a verb according to its context and its position in a See also:sentence. In the See also:order of words, the genitive follows the noun it governs, and, as usual in such cases, the relations of time and See also:palace are indicated by prefixes, not by suffixes. The meanings of the monosyllables were differentiated, as in the other Tai See also:languages and in Chinese, by a system of tones, but these were rarely indicated in See also:writing, and the tradition regarding them is lost.

The language had an See also:

alphabet of its own, which was clearly related to that of Burmese. See E. A. Gait, A See also:History of Assam (See also:Calcutta, 1906). For the language see The Linguistic Survey of See also:India, vol. ii. (Calcutta, 1906) (contains See also:grammar and vocabulary) ; G. A. Grierson, " Notes on Ahom," in the Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, vol. lvi., 1902, pp. 1 if. (contains grammar and vocabulary, with specimens), and " An Ahom See also:Cosmogony, with a See also:translation and a vocabulary of the Ahom language," in the See also:Journal of the Royal See also:Asiatic Society for 1904, pp. 181 if. (G.

A.

End of Article: AHOM, or AHAM

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